mtudb24
Well-Known Member
- Messages
- 83
- Reaction score
- 166
- Points
- 52
- Location
- Michigan
- Boat Make
- Yamaha
- Year
- 2024
- Boat Model
- AR
- Boat Length
- 22
It was a short season for the new boat (launched July 3rd and pulled Sept 22) but I thought I'd give my initial thoughts on the boat.
We had a 24 Bennington pontoon we bought new in 2011. 32" elliptical tubes and 150hp Merc Pro XS (near 165hp)
Fit and Finish
The dealer had the boat in very good and clean condition when I bought it. I only found 1 screw in a cupholder and 1 of the black plastic cupholders in port rear seat had come loose and was laying on the floor after the 120 mile tow home from the dealer. No squeaks or rattles during the summer operations, doors to the port and starboard side fit well with no gaps. All hatches (ski locker, clean out ports) are solid. No slop at all. All systems checked out ok and no problems over the short summer. Both wireless phone charging pads were functional. All switches worked without issues and the 5" touch screen was solid. Only issue with the 5" screen was the low water alarm (until I figured out how to adjust it). All flip up seat brackets were solid and tight. 3 snaps for the flooring were not locked down but that was a 5 second fix. Dealer installed bow cover was perfect and so easy to use. I do have 1 problem with the cockpit cover as I can't get 2 of the snaps on the port side just fwd of the tower to reach the snaps on the boat (no matter how loose I have the cover) but that hasn't had any negative effects on keeping water and debris out of the boat.
Performance
The TR1's are ok. Its not a rocket ship but I knew this coming into the boat. I was actually more worried about all the people who say the steering is awful on a jet boat and i would need some of the available steering upgrades. Coming from outboards all my life, this was my biggest concern. I couldn't have been more wrong. Steering and docking the boat and even loading it on the trailer at the end of year is a breeze with 2 motors. 1 motor in fwd, 1 in reverse, you can spin it on a dime. Coming into the dock is simple with small amounts of throttle adjustments with 1 engine in neutral and 1 in fwd etc. You can steer this boat with throttle control and not even have to touch the steering wheel.
Top end with Bimini top deployed was 35mph with 3 adults and our 17 year old daughter. Boat was loaded with coolers, 3 person towable tube, and about 3/4 tank of fuel. Never did do a top end run with the bimini top in the stored position. I assume it would pick up maybe another couple miles per hour. Only have 8 hours on the motors as its a quick run to the sand bar from our cottage. Logged a little over 100 miles and 46 gallons of fuel used according the Connex screen. Avg of 2.2mph. Many of those hours were spent tubing which I know eats the fuel consumption big time. Not sure what the RPM's are supposed to be, but at the couple WOT runs with the top deployed, the tach's were about 7600-7700 rpm. I've seen people say 7800 is the max and others have said 8000. Maybe lighter loads and Bimini top stowed, I'd see another 200 or so rpm?
Towing a tube was very good in my opinion. The TR1's did get challenged a bit when we towed 3 150lb kids on it in the turns. But the steering response was quick and it never failed to send them outside the wake and get some air time as they passed from one side to the other. When only having 1 or 2 people on the tube, even in tight turns, the TR1's had enough power not to bog down at all.
My pontoon ran 40mph with a similar load, so its a bit of step back. But that's ok, because the kids love the watersports. Our Bennington didn't excel in that at all.
The big water handling was decent as well. We boat on Saginaw Bay and she can get nasty pretty quickly. I will say it was probably a toss up between the AR220 and the Bennington in a rough chop. Probably due to the extra 2'6" the Benny's LOA over the AR 220. Obviously the Benny being a pontoon which is 8'6 wide the whole length of the boat felt like a larger boat. However, there is much more usable storage space on the AR220 and the interior seating configuration with the bow seating options with filler cushions, the swim platform seating and the optional swim up seating we bought, far surpassed the comfort level and enjoyment the family had this summer was very positive
The biggest reason we made the switch as the Benny was still in fantastic shape was due to the lower water levels this year on the Great Lakes. We were concerned because our canal was not being dredged and we were already down in the Spring from last Fall by about 15" of water depth and even had to have our dock that is attached to our seawall lowered due to the water levels. This is where a jet boat shines. You can jump up on plane in 2 feet of water and go where the pontoons with outboards and I/O boats have to idle out to 3 plus feet of water to go (which is a long way). We are able to cut our drive time almost in half with a jet boat to get to the sand bar areas where we would have to all the way around the "point" with outboard powered boats. So what we lost in top end on the Benny, we make up in a shorter ride time.
I was fortunate enough never to have sucked something up in the clean out ports. I did pull them a few times just to get the hang of doing it and bought a couple of knives / tools just incase I had to clean them out.
Overall Thoughts
This was the best decision we could have made. Though our time was limited this summer, it was a very positive experience. Wife and kids were very happy with the purchase. It was a good change of pace for us. Would an AR250 be a better fit for the power of the 1.8L on a leftover 23MY or the new 1.9L on a 2024 MY boat been better, maybe? But to save the $15k on going with the AR220 and having no real complaints, we're pleased with our decision to go with the AR220. The powder blue wasn't my first choice, but the family loved that color over the black and white and we've have gotten so many compliments on the color, I am glad they changed my mind to go with the blue.
The options we added:
Vinyl covered blue anchor with 100 feet of blue anchor rope.
JBP raised registration numbers
JBP trailer bow roller
JBP AR220 marine matt for the fwd section of the anchor locker
Dolphin T Top tower Rod Holders (4)
Ecoxgear 8" Bluetooth tower speakers
RGB interior LED lighting.
Garmin 7" HD side scanning sonar / fish finder / GPS
60" CE Smith Trailer guide on poles with Yamaha covers
Blue kill switch lanyard
Custom name on transom
We had a 24 Bennington pontoon we bought new in 2011. 32" elliptical tubes and 150hp Merc Pro XS (near 165hp)
Fit and Finish
The dealer had the boat in very good and clean condition when I bought it. I only found 1 screw in a cupholder and 1 of the black plastic cupholders in port rear seat had come loose and was laying on the floor after the 120 mile tow home from the dealer. No squeaks or rattles during the summer operations, doors to the port and starboard side fit well with no gaps. All hatches (ski locker, clean out ports) are solid. No slop at all. All systems checked out ok and no problems over the short summer. Both wireless phone charging pads were functional. All switches worked without issues and the 5" touch screen was solid. Only issue with the 5" screen was the low water alarm (until I figured out how to adjust it). All flip up seat brackets were solid and tight. 3 snaps for the flooring were not locked down but that was a 5 second fix. Dealer installed bow cover was perfect and so easy to use. I do have 1 problem with the cockpit cover as I can't get 2 of the snaps on the port side just fwd of the tower to reach the snaps on the boat (no matter how loose I have the cover) but that hasn't had any negative effects on keeping water and debris out of the boat.
Performance
The TR1's are ok. Its not a rocket ship but I knew this coming into the boat. I was actually more worried about all the people who say the steering is awful on a jet boat and i would need some of the available steering upgrades. Coming from outboards all my life, this was my biggest concern. I couldn't have been more wrong. Steering and docking the boat and even loading it on the trailer at the end of year is a breeze with 2 motors. 1 motor in fwd, 1 in reverse, you can spin it on a dime. Coming into the dock is simple with small amounts of throttle adjustments with 1 engine in neutral and 1 in fwd etc. You can steer this boat with throttle control and not even have to touch the steering wheel.
Top end with Bimini top deployed was 35mph with 3 adults and our 17 year old daughter. Boat was loaded with coolers, 3 person towable tube, and about 3/4 tank of fuel. Never did do a top end run with the bimini top in the stored position. I assume it would pick up maybe another couple miles per hour. Only have 8 hours on the motors as its a quick run to the sand bar from our cottage. Logged a little over 100 miles and 46 gallons of fuel used according the Connex screen. Avg of 2.2mph. Many of those hours were spent tubing which I know eats the fuel consumption big time. Not sure what the RPM's are supposed to be, but at the couple WOT runs with the top deployed, the tach's were about 7600-7700 rpm. I've seen people say 7800 is the max and others have said 8000. Maybe lighter loads and Bimini top stowed, I'd see another 200 or so rpm?
Towing a tube was very good in my opinion. The TR1's did get challenged a bit when we towed 3 150lb kids on it in the turns. But the steering response was quick and it never failed to send them outside the wake and get some air time as they passed from one side to the other. When only having 1 or 2 people on the tube, even in tight turns, the TR1's had enough power not to bog down at all.
My pontoon ran 40mph with a similar load, so its a bit of step back. But that's ok, because the kids love the watersports. Our Bennington didn't excel in that at all.
The big water handling was decent as well. We boat on Saginaw Bay and she can get nasty pretty quickly. I will say it was probably a toss up between the AR220 and the Bennington in a rough chop. Probably due to the extra 2'6" the Benny's LOA over the AR 220. Obviously the Benny being a pontoon which is 8'6 wide the whole length of the boat felt like a larger boat. However, there is much more usable storage space on the AR220 and the interior seating configuration with the bow seating options with filler cushions, the swim platform seating and the optional swim up seating we bought, far surpassed the comfort level and enjoyment the family had this summer was very positive
The biggest reason we made the switch as the Benny was still in fantastic shape was due to the lower water levels this year on the Great Lakes. We were concerned because our canal was not being dredged and we were already down in the Spring from last Fall by about 15" of water depth and even had to have our dock that is attached to our seawall lowered due to the water levels. This is where a jet boat shines. You can jump up on plane in 2 feet of water and go where the pontoons with outboards and I/O boats have to idle out to 3 plus feet of water to go (which is a long way). We are able to cut our drive time almost in half with a jet boat to get to the sand bar areas where we would have to all the way around the "point" with outboard powered boats. So what we lost in top end on the Benny, we make up in a shorter ride time.
I was fortunate enough never to have sucked something up in the clean out ports. I did pull them a few times just to get the hang of doing it and bought a couple of knives / tools just incase I had to clean them out.
Overall Thoughts
This was the best decision we could have made. Though our time was limited this summer, it was a very positive experience. Wife and kids were very happy with the purchase. It was a good change of pace for us. Would an AR250 be a better fit for the power of the 1.8L on a leftover 23MY or the new 1.9L on a 2024 MY boat been better, maybe? But to save the $15k on going with the AR220 and having no real complaints, we're pleased with our decision to go with the AR220. The powder blue wasn't my first choice, but the family loved that color over the black and white and we've have gotten so many compliments on the color, I am glad they changed my mind to go with the blue.
The options we added:
Vinyl covered blue anchor with 100 feet of blue anchor rope.
JBP raised registration numbers
JBP trailer bow roller
JBP AR220 marine matt for the fwd section of the anchor locker
Dolphin T Top tower Rod Holders (4)
Ecoxgear 8" Bluetooth tower speakers
RGB interior LED lighting.
Garmin 7" HD side scanning sonar / fish finder / GPS
60" CE Smith Trailer guide on poles with Yamaha covers
Blue kill switch lanyard
Custom name on transom
